Old Iron & Rusty Gears
by Old Iron Steam 1
Summary: When a young journalist comes to the Northwest Railway Museum to to get an interview from Ex-S. A. Agnew Lumber Co. #1, Christopher tells her about his life up to this point, early April of 2011, as well as the events that took place along the way.
1. Chapter 1 - Remembering The Past

_Chapter 1 – Remembering The Past_

_' When I first arrived and was placed on this here sidin' I hoped that I would be restored to steam someday, but after sittin' here on this sidin' for five years that hope had long faded away and I thought this would be where I would rust away into nothin' and be forgotten by history. I had never been so wrong in my entire_ life.'

* * *

It was a cool crisp morning, the morning sun had just started to shine through the treetops onto the dew covered grounds around the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie Washington. It was the start of April, the beautiful flowers planted in the flowerbeds in front of the museums main building were in full bloom and honey bees were flying around pollinating the flowers and gathering pollen to make their sweet honey. A mother robin was standing in the grass, looking for a thick juicy worm to take back to her hatchings for breakfast, but then quickly flew away as the sound purring engines and rubber tires filled the air as employees of the museum drove up to park in the employee parking behind the main building.

Soon the buildings of the museum started to come alive with activity as the employees set to work cleaning windows, sweeping floors, watering the flowers, and dusting off the fixtures. The engine house was coming to life also as the crew began to oil, clean, and fuel up Andrew, Shamokin Valley Railroad #4024, getting him ready for the days work. Andrew is a Baldwin RS-4-TC who operates on the Northwest Railway Museums five mile common carrier railroad, the Shamokin Valley Railroad, pulling tourist trains from Snoqualmie east to North Bend and back again. By now it was around nine o'clock in the morning and Andrew was just starting to wake up as the shop crew were just finishing up oiling and cleaning him up for the days work. "Well, about time you woke up" Said a voice as a man in his mid thirties walked into the engine house. He looked up at Andrew who then looked back at the man sleepily, " Well good morning to you too Alex." Yawned Andrew as he was still just waking up.

" Come on now, get that sleep out of your eyes, we got to go get your coaches to the depot still." Explained his driver as he climbed up into his cab.

" I know Alex, I know." Said Andrew sleepily, and with a push of a button Andrews supercharged V-12 Caterpillar D397 engine roared into life with dust and some other crud shooting out of his exhaust.

" Sorry about that." Said Andrew as the crud blew out from his exhaust.

" Its not your fault Andrew, after all its been a good two months sense you were last fired up." Sympathized Alex as he released Andrews brakes, eased his throttle open, and slowly rolled Andrew out of the engine house. Andrew squinted as the warm morning sun hit his face, the sun was now just starting to appear over the tops of the trees as Andrew went down the line towards the depot at a nice easy pace.

Soon Andrew was pulling into a siding just before the depot, he was then coupled to a string of six old Pullman coaches. With care he pulled the string of coaches out of their siding, gently shunted them over to the depot, ran around his train, and then back down onto his coaches slowly and easily as he gently coupled up to them. It was now ten o'clock and Andrew was idling nicely at the depot, waiting for the day to start, usually people didn't start showing up until eleven thirty or so.

" So Alex, anything I should know about for today? Like someone showing up or something like that." Asked Andrew as he sat idle.

" Yeah, there's a journalist from the local paper coming here to do a story."

" A story on what? One of the old timers?"

Alex nodded, " Well to be more accurate, a story on Christopher."

Andrew was a bit puzzled, Christoper was an old geared logging steam locomotive, to be more precise Christoper is a class C 65-3 Shay locomotive who was built August 29th, 1904 making him the oldest surviving class C shay in world, he thought '_why would anyone want to write a story on him? Sure he's the oldest shay of his class in the world but what else is there?' _Andrew pondered on the subject for a bit then asked his driver, " Do you know what the story is going to be about?" Andrew wanted to know more on the subject.

" From what I remember being told yesterday, its going to be on his history, which railroads he worked on and what not. I guess its because the preservation society has finally raised enough money to have him restored to steam." Said Alex as he tried to remember what he was told at a meeting the day prior.

Andrew smiled, he was glad Christopher was going to be given a chance to steam again. " Well good for him, he deserves it as old as he is."

" Yes, he does." And no sooner then Alex said that a Brunswick green Buick pulled into the depots parking lot and a young women, most likely in her early twenties, stepped out of the car wearing a pair of blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a light gray jacket. " Now who is that?" Andrew asked as he watched the women step out of her car while holding something in her right hand. " Your about to find out, here she comes now." Alex said as the two of them watch the young women walk over to them.

" Hello there, my names Kate, I work for the local paper and I'm here to get a story from one of the steam engines here." She smiled kindly as she went on, " I was told his name was Christopher, do you know where I can find him?"

" Yeah, he's on the sidings with the other logging locomotives, his siding is right up against a small road that runs along side the sidings. He's easy to spot out, just go on down that way past the shop and those ol' sidings are just past it." Explained Alex as he pointed down towards the shops.

" Alright, thank you."

" Your welcome, and have a nice day miss Kate." Alex said kindly.

" Yes you too." replied Kate as she set off on her walk to the old sidings.

It's bit of a walk to get to the old sidings from the depot but Kate didn't mind. Once there she looked around at the engines that were there and, like Alex had said, it took her only a couple minutes to spot out Christopher, who was sitting sound asleep in the morning sun on his siding. She walked over to him and looked up at him, she had been told he was 106 years old this year but was surprised to see that he had a face that looked to belong to an engine half his age! After a couple of minutes of looking at him she then gave his pilot a gentle pat hoping it would wake him. " Come on now, time to wake up ol' boy." she said to Christopher. The only reply she got from the old engine was a 'leave me alone and let me sleep' kind of groan.

" Wake up please." Kate said persistently, " You are Christopher right? The class C 65-3, Shay built by Lima in 1904?"

"...Who wants to know?" Christopher asked sleepily.

" The person who's trying to wake you up."

He opened his eyes sleepily and looked down at person who was interrupting his sleep. As he thought, the voice belonged to a young women. He saw she was holding a notebook and a pencil in her right hand, then he asked in his old voice, " What is it yeh want youngin?" As he looked at her, now a bit more awake.

" My name is Kate, I work for the local paper hear in Snoqualmie and I am here to write a story about your life up till now."

" Really is that so? Well then youngin, yah better find yourself a comfy spot to sit down 'cause this is gonna take a while." Christopher said kindly with his old wise smile.

She soon found herself a comfy spot on the ground and sat with her legs crossed, opened her notebook to a fresh page, and looked up at him ready for the long story that was to come. He smiled still, " Well lets see here, where should I start this here story at? Ah I know, lets start at the beginning. The date was August 29th 1904, the day I rolled out of the Lima locomotive works. I was built for the Newhouse Mines & Smelters in Utah, which later became the Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake Railroad and I their number one." Kate was writing in her notebook as she listened intensely, trying her best to get every detail, as Christopher continued.

" I'd tell ya more about the place but the only things I remember about workin' there is that it was hard, borin' work. I worked there for six years until 1910 when I was sold to the South Utah Mines & Smelters, in Salt Lake City, Utah. My job there was to haul loaded ore cars from the mines to the foundry, where the ore was refined and used for many things." He looked down at Kate and saw she was writing in her notebook.

She looked up at him after a couple minutes and asked, " What happened after you worked there?'

" Well, I worked there for five years or so. Then in 1915, I was sold to the Cramer Kay Machinery Co. in Newhouse, Utah, where I worked until they got an engine who was better suited for the job. So then I was sold to the Eastern Railway & Lumber Co, later to be the S. A. Agnew Lumber Co, in Centralia, Washington, as their number 1 in 1916. That was when my career as a loggin' locomotive started off."

" What was it like working for them?" Asked Kate intriguingly.

" It was wonderful, the scenery of the line was breath takin', and I enjoyed working there for the first couple of years until..." Christoper sighed lightly

" Until what?"

" Well you see, bein' that I was a second hand engine to them, sometime around 1918 they started assignin' rookie crews to me who were in need of training. They knew the basics of operating a locomotive but they were out of practice sort of speak, they would oil and grease me like they were taught to do but when it came down to them cleanin' my boiler tubes, I was lucky if I had my tubes cleaned once a year."

Kate looked up at him after writing some more in her notebook," That must have caused a lot of issues to arise."

" Oh believe me youngin' it did, they were to darn lazy to bother with doin' it. Over the years a thick layer of baked on soot formed inside my tubes 'cause of it and made it harder and harder for me to steam properly. It got to the point where I only just had enough strength to do my work, but that all changed in the spring of 1928..."


	2. Chapter 2 - A Sooty Situation

_Chapter 2 – A sooty situation_

_'I...I can't...breathe!'_

* * *

_Centralia, Washington – 1928_

It was a warm, humid, misty mid summer morning on the Eastern Railway & Lumber Co.'s logging camp number three branch line. It was five o'clock in the morning and the engine's crews were out at the old two stall shed just starting to fire up their engines. Chris and Jack were just waking up as their fires were lit and the warmth of their fires flowed through their boilers.

Jack yawned as he woke up, " Morning Chris..."

" Mornin' Jack...how'd ya sleep last night?" Asked Chris sleepily as he started waking up.

" Eh...alright I guess...but their darn party kept me up a good bit of the night."

" Yeah same here..." Earlier that night the loggers were having a good ol' time in the mess hall celebrating a successful summer logging season, as from the start of summer till the end of mid summer was the busiest time on the line as orders for lumber came in from everywhere across the united states, and it wasn't until two in the morning that they all went to bed.

Once Chris had a good fire in him his crew left to get breakfast at the mess hall, which broke a good couple of rules as an engines crew was not to leave their engine until it had steam up, this was so that if anything went wrong the crew could quickly respond and take care of the matter. Luckily Jacks crew being a veteran crew like all the other crews on the railway, except Chris's, watch over Chris's fire to make sure nothing went wrong while he was warming up. Jacks crew was used to this as they were stuck doing it every morning because Chris's crew was just a couple of rookies who only just knew how to operate a locomotive.

Keith, Jacks driver looked out of Jacks cab and sigh," There they go again, come on Max lets go check on Chris."

Max nodded and climbed down from Jacks cab with Keith and soon they were in Chris's cab tending to his fire, amongst other things. Jack looked at Chris," You didn't do anything to deserve this Chris...having to spend the past ten years with rookie crews who always put maintenance of their engine as the lowest priority." Jack was still a young engine, he was built for the Eastern Railway & Lumber Co. in 1924. He always looked up to Chris as like a grandfather, as Chris was old, wise, and had more experience then any other engine on the railway as he was the oldest out of them all. Jack had a lot of respect for the old Shay and already had learned a great deal from him over the four years he had been there.

" I know Jack I know...it's the damn railways fault that I'm in the shape I'm in..." Said Chris as he looked at the young 3 truck 80 ton Heisler locomotive.

" Yes...that's true." said Jack as both him and Chris simmered quietly, until an annoyed angry voice erupted from Jacks side of the shed and broke the silence.

" **Would you two shut up already! All your damn complaining is keeps waking me up!**" It was Mathew, an Alco 2-6-2 side tank who, like Jack was built in 1924. Mathew was on loan to the railway from the Quincy Railroad in California, of which he is their number two. He was brought in to help out during the busy summer season, he had been staying up at camp three with Jack and Chris for the past two months as he was told two months ago to bring up twelve more skeleton log cars from the yard at the saw mill, which from camp three is four miles away, so that Jack and Chris could keep up with the increased work load. After he brought the twelve cars he was then assigned to MOW work on the camp three branch till his loan time on the railway was up. He was sitting on the siding that went along side the left side of the shed, the roof of the shed extended over the siding and it was the length of the sheds.

" **I'm going home later today and I want to get as much sleep as I can for the long trip back to California and all your complaining isn't helping a-**" Mathew was cut off before he could finish.

" **SHUT YER TRAP YAH WHINY LITTLE TANK ENGINE!**" Both Mathew and Jack looked at Chris shocked by his outburst, "**YOUR ANNOYED ABOUT ME COMPLAINING?! YOU TRY GOIN' FOR TEN YEARS WITHOUT PROPER MAINTENENCE AND TRY TO RUN LIKE YOU JUST ROLLED OUT OF THE SHOPS! THATS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR ALWAYS ASSIGNED ROOKIE CREWS WHO ARE TO DAMN LAZY TO EVEN BOTHER TO MAINTAIN THEIR ENGINE!**" Chris was breathing a bit hard as he was trying to catch his breath.

Jack looked at Mathew angry as well, " Its bad enough Chris has just barely enough steam do his work 'cause his tubes are quite badly clogged up with baked on soot from lack of cleaning them, and this bad batch of coal we've gotten doesn't help any! But what really doesn't help is that we got a whiny tank engine who complains about doing MOW work!** So shut up already and be glad you run properly and that your going home today!**"

Mathew just stared blankly at Chris, then at Jack. He never knew Chris's story and now he felt ashamed for saying what he did. After a couple minutes he stared down at the tracks quietly, " I'm sorry..." was all he said before he went back to sleep.

A half an hour later it was six o'clock Jacks safety was lifting and then with a loud whoosh it went off, his driver and firemen were soon back in his cab, " Well, I'm off to take the loggers to the landing, I'll see ya when I get back Chris." slowly and easily Keith opened the throttle, and rolled Jack out of the shed, onto the turntable, then after opening his throttle a bit more, Jack went on into the small yard that was at camp three. It's only a four siding yard but its large enough for what they use it for which is a place to store two old Pullman passenger coaches, a gondola with two cement blocks in the middle of it for weight as well as a snow plow mounted to the front of it for clearing the line in the winter, and then finally the MOW train.

The yard lead connects right to the main line with a right hand switch pointed to the west so then a south bound engine could pull right into the yard, and connected to the yard lead is the track to the sheds which is connected up by another right hand switch pointing north. Jack pulled onto the yard lead then stopped just beyond the switch as his fire man jumped out of his cab, switched it to the yard, and then ran down to the siding the old Pullmans were on and switched the track to them, allowing Jack to slowly and easily back down and couple up to them.

With two blasts of his whistle Jack pulled the coaches out of the siding and down the yard lead, he then stopped just before the switch to the main as his fireman threw the switch to the yard lead so he could proceed onto the main and then slowly Jack pulled his train onto the main, his fireman threw the switch back to the main and climbed into his cab as Jack was slowly backing his train down to the old depot platform. His driver pulled out his pocket watch and looked at it, " Its six ten, we got five minutes." He then looked over at the sheds, Chris was sitting there simmering quietly still, his crew no where to be seen, Keith sighed, " I swear if those numskulls aren't out there when we get back then I'm gonna go tell the manager about this."

Max looked at him, " I suggest you wait till later, if those idiots screw up today then you'll have even better a reason to report them, as well as for manager to boot'em outa here."

"You got a point there Max." Said Keith as he gave Jacks whistle a good long blow, telling the loggers they had three minutes till its time to depart.

Soon enough all the loggers were on board and with two long blasts of his whistle Jack slowly pulled out of the depot, unlike the usual log trains Jack doesn't have to push the coaches up to the landing as the wye, used for turning engines around at the landing, was long enough to take the length of him and the coaches.

About forty-five minutes later, Jack pulled back into camp three with his empty coaches, he then pulled into the run around siding that runs double the length of the depots platform, uncoupled, then went around his coaches and coupled back up behind them so they were in front of him, he then backed down from the siding and after a couple minutes he shunted the coaches back into their siding in the yard. Jack looked over at the sheds and saw Chris simmering still and his crew was still nowhere to be seen, Jack then backed out of the yard and chuffed over to the turntable where he was turned around and backed into the shed.

" Did your safety go off yet?" Asked jack as he slowly backed into the shed, and then watched his crew storm off to the mess hall to "motivate" Chris's crew.

" Yeh it did, 'bout twenty minutes after yah left." Chris smirked as he watched Jacks crew storm off, " Good they need ta get there asses in gear, those lazy good for nothin's."

Both engines watched and nearly broke out laughing as they watched Jacks driver and fireman quite literally throw Chris's crew out of the mess hall and told them to get to their engine and do their job, and so they walked over to the sheds, and climbed into Chris's cab," I hope I can manage to make it up to the landing today..."

"Why do you say that Chris? Are you feeling alright?" Jack was worried for his friend and mentor.

" Not really...It's harder for me to breath this morning then normal...I think this bad coal is whats causing it..." Chris waited as the turntable was turned to face him, he then rolled onto it slowly then turned him so he was facing the track that goes into the yard lead and he then rolled off the turntable and slowly chugged onto the yard lead, then the onto the main line. Chris sat in front of the switch to the yard lead as his firemen switched it back to the main, not far in front of him was a left hard switch pointed north, it switched over to a two tracked siding that ran along the main long enough so that twelve log cars could be put on ether of the two sidings, this is the siding where Chris puts loaded cars from the landing for Jack to take to the mill, and where Jack puts empty cars from the mill for Chris to take to the landing to be loaded.

_Northwest Railway Museum Snoqualmie, Washington- 2011_

Kate looked up at the old engine as she finished writing a bit in her notebook, " Sounds like you and Jack had quite the system going back then."

" Yeh we did and we ran that there line like that for a good long time." Chris smiled, he was glad someone took interest in his life story, and was glad he had someone to talk to for once.

Kate smiled back at him as she listened to him, " So do you know if Jack is still around?"

Chris thought for a good while, trying to remember what happened to Jack after the old line was abandoned back in the 1950's, " I'm not sure...last I remember he was sold to another railway when the line closed...but after that I don't know."

" Oh I see...well shall we continue with your story?" Asked Kate, wanting to hear more.

Chris smiled again, " Yes, we shall youngin'."

_Centralia, Washington – 1928_

Chris's firemen soon had the switch thrown to the siding and he then slowly and easily rolled into the siding, coupled to one of the twelve car strings and then pulled it out of the siding onto the main, his firemen then threw the switch back to the main and then climbed back into his cab. Chris gave two long blasts on his whistle and whispered to himself as he began to push the string of log cars up the line to the landing, " I'm glad this is the last day we have ta use strings of twelve. It'll be a lot easier on mah ol' wheels when we go back to usin' strings of six again."

Now, the camp three branch line is a ten mile line from the mill to the landing, the railway owns two mills, both of equal size, one mill used by the camp three branch as it had the landing that put out the most timber, even though it was the shortest of the three lines, and the second mill was used by the camp one, and camp two branches, both of these lines are roughly twenty miles long. On the camp three branch there are two hills, the first one starts half a mile up the line from the mill and goes on a 1.5% grade for two an a half miles till it levels out one mile before camp three. The second hill is on the six mile run from camp three to the landing, the hill starts one mile from camp three and goes on a 3% grade for three miles till it levels out two miles before the landing, normally Chris and Jack can handle ether of these grades with a fully loaded six car train of skeleton log cars no problem, but today because of the bad coal things were going to go differently

Chris was just a half mile from the start of the 3% grade, his firemen noticed this and then shoveled on a good bit of coal into Chris's firebox so as to have plenty of steam up when tackling the hill, though him shoveling more coal onto Chris's fire did the complete opposite. The bad coal was very sooty and when the extra coal was put on his fire a good bit of soot got stirred up and it then began to completely clog up a several of Chris's tubes and as they began to climb the hill Chris began to breath heavily.

They only just made it a quarter mile up the grade when Chris began to cough violently, he was panting and breathing hard as he coughed, with every cough Chris coughed up pitch black soot which made it look like smoke was coming from his mouth. Soon enough Chris's boiler pressure began to drop till he slowed down to a mere crawl and then to a very slow stop on the hill. His driver put his brakes full on so not to roll down the hill as well as closed his throttle, his driver and firemen then climbed down from his cab and walked up to Chris's front angrily, as they were still a bit steamed from what had happened earlier that morning, and then began to tell Chris how much of a piece of junk he was and how they deserved to be assigned to a proper engine instead of this rust bucket of bolts.

Back at the camp Jack was sitting on the yard lead, it was now eight o'clock and Jack was starting to worry, "Where is he? It doesn't normally take him this long to make a run to the landing and back, its only an hour and a half run."

Keith nodded in agreement, " Most likely something happened." He sighed then looked at his firemen, " Max go to the depot and send word to manager that were going up to see whats wrong, also tell the shop that we might be bringing Chris in so tell them to be expecting us." Max nodded then went off to the depot and came back ten minutes later, once he climbed into the cab Keith opened Jacks throttle and they rolled onto the main and hurried down the line. It didn't take them long to find Chris, and to hear that something was wrong, as Jack slowly rolled up and stopped just behind Chris he and his crew could hear Chris's crew yelling at him still. This made both Jack and his crew furious and with a loud blast of Jacks whistle the rookie crew stopped and looked back to see Jack glaring at them as well as Jacks crew running towards them.

Chris and Jack watched as Keith and Max gave the rookies a good beating and told them just what they thought of them, it wasn't long till both of them were on the ground and wishing they kept their mouths shut. Keith then grabbed both of the rookies and with ease lifted them back on their feet and glared at them right in the eyes, " **Now both of you pieces of trash get back in that cab and stay quiet! I'm reporting this to the manager as well as you two putting yourselves as top priority instead of the upkeep and maintenance of your own engine!**" They didn't say a word as the climbed into Chris's cab.

Jack easily and gently buffered up to Chris and got coupled, " Don't worry Chris I gotcha, were going to get you down to the shop fast as we can." The only reply Jack got was Chris coughing roughly and trying to breath. They released Chris's brakes and slowly and gently Jack pulled both Chris and his train back down to the camp. Once back at camp three they shunted the empty train of cars back onto the siding they came off of and then had Chris and Jack turned around on the turntable, by this time Mathew was awake and just getting steam up. He saw Chris and felt very worried, " I-Is he going to be alright?" Jack looked at Mathew and told him what happened then sighed, " He should be alright but we won't know till the shop gives him a good look over." Mathew stayed quiet as Max climb back up into Jacks cab after sending the message that Chris was indeed coming down to the shop, as well as a message to the manager of the railway. Jack then slowly back down onto the main with Chris ready to start the six mile trip to the shop.

Jack gave two loud long blasts of his whistle then started off down the line, he roared down the 1.5% grade at his top speed of 30MPH as they raced down to the mill. It took them only half an hour to get down to the mill and once it was in sight Jacks brakes were put hard on and they screeched to a stop just before a switch that was a quarter mile from the mill, " Phew, almost missed the switch to the shop." Jacks firemen then threw the switch to the line that runs down to the shop. It wasn't long till Jack was pulling into the shops yard, he then got himself and Chris turned around on the shops wye and then back Chris slowly into one of the empty stalls in the shop.

The head mechanic and veteran of the shop walked up and saw Chris, he was coughing a good bit still but not as bad as before, he walked over to Jacks cab just as Keith was climbing down, " I'm guessin' its his tubes? They've finally clogged right up haven' they?" Asked Johnson, Keith nodded and then told him about what happened, " Ah don't worry, manager is gettin' rid of those two idiots as well as gettin' Chris here a proper crew." Both Jack and his crew smiled as they heard this.

" So who's gonna be his crew?" Asked Keith

" I think there assignin' Jeremiah and Mark to him, couldn't ask for a better crew for this ol' boy then those two." Chris smiled lightly as he coughed when he heard this, they had put out his fire and were letting him cool off before they looked him over.

" No yah can't." Said Keith in agreement

" Well you fellas better get back and try to do what yah can." Said Johnson as he looked at Jack

Keith nodded and climbed back into Jacks cab. " So what now? Am I going to be running the branch on my own?" asked Jack as he slowly rolled out of the shop after being uncoupled from Chris.

"Hopefully manager can see about having Mathews loan extended till Chris is out of the shop, if not then we'll be runnin' back and forth from the landing to the mill with one of those twelve car strings." Keith sighed as Jack chuffed out of the shops yard but was happy Chris would be in the good hands of one of the best crews on the railway.

Chris sat in the shop, he was relieved that he would have a proper crew for once as well as have some well needed maintenance taken care of during his stay. Johnson stood in front of Chris and sighed, " Ol' boy...your gonna keep us busy for a good long while..."


	3. Chapter 3 - Taking A Breather

_Chapter 3 – Taking a breather_

'I'm going to be the next one in the shop if I keep getting my wheels worked off like this!'

* * *

Northwest Railway Museum Snoqualmie, Washington - 2011

Chris was just about to continue on with his story when off in the distance, clear as day, the sound of two loud long blasts of an air horn could be heard and the sound of a diesel's engine revving up slowly could be heard as well. Both Kate and Chris looked over in the direction of the depot, it could only just be seen off in the distance, "**DAMN IT ANDREW! YOUR INTERUPTIN' MAH STORY WITH THAT DAMN HORN OF YERS!**" Yelled the old engine loud as he could at the diesel who was just now pulling out of the depot with the first train of the day to North Bend.

"**Sorry Christopher! Didn't mean to interrupt!**" Shouted back Andrew as he pulled out of the depot.

Kate looked at her watch, "Oh wow noon already, time really does fly when your listening to a good story." She said while smiling at Chris.

Chris coughed a bit from yelling then looked down at Kate and smiled back at her, "Now where was I...oh yes."

_Centralia, Washington – 1928_

It had been two days sense Jack rushed Chris down to the shops after what happened on the hill. With Chris in the shops the camp three branch was now down an engine and it showed. The manager of the railway explained to the Quincy Railroad the situation and asked if they could extend Mathews loan to the railway but they also were down an engine and needed Mathew back as soon as possible, leaving Jack to run the branch himself. Jack was managing well and was getting quite the work out running the camp three branch on his own as he was running with a twelve car string of skeleton log cars from the landing to the mill, going back and forth on the 10 mile run several times a day. It was tiring work but Jack didn't mind and luckily Jack was only pulling loaded cars down hill from the landing to the mill and not up hill from the mill, otherwise he wouldn't be able to cope with the workload.

During the two days Chris had been at the shops the workmen had been catching up on some minor maintenance that he had been needing for a good many years now. Several workmen had been assigned to clean Chris's tubes, which alone was no easy task, and so day in and day out during those past two days workmen had been taking shifts on cleaning Chris's tubes, which was done twice a day. After the two days of hard work cleaning his tubes the best they could the veteran and head mechanic Jonson took a look at Chris's tubes, he finished just as Jeremiah and Mark, Chris's newly assigned veteran crew walked into the shop to meet and to check in on there old iron workhorse. Johnson closed Chris's smoke box door and sighed, he then jumped down from his front and saw the well renowned crew, " Well its about time yeh boys got down here." Smiled Johnson as he walked over to them.

" So this is the ol' boy we've been assigned to eh?" Asked Jeremiah as he looked up at Chris, who felt a bit offended by what he had just heard.

" Old am I?! Well let me tell yah somethin' there sonny, I may be old but I can work just as hard heck maybeh even harder then any of these here youngsters they have runnin' this here railway!" Said Chris as he looked down crossly at his new crew, like a wise grandfather scolding his grandchildren.

Mark chuckled and then smiled at the old engine, " Exactly, and thats why manager finally came to his senses and assigned us as your crew, he also does regret havin' rookies assigned to you the past 10 years. My names Mark and this here is Jeremiah, we may not look it but we are one of the best crews around here."

Chris was quite surprised when he heard this, " So, manager's decided to give me a good fightin' chance has he? Well its 'bout damn time!" The three men laughed a bit then Mark looked at Johnson seriously, " So just how bad are those tubes of his Johnson? From what I hear 10 years of not cleaning them properly has taken quite the toll." Johnson nodded then climbed up onto Chris's front and opened his smoke box door, Mark looked into his smoke box and sighed when he saw the condition Chris's tubes were in, " Believe me, they were a lot worse two days ago Mark. That there is all baked on the inside of his tubes there, thank those ten years for that. We've tried cleanin' them best we can but still can't get that crud out. " Mark thought and pondered for a moment about Chris's tubes as Jeremiah took a walk around Chris to see what kind of condition he was in and was surprised on how good of condition he was in for being 24 years old already.

" Well...from the looks of it, he'll need a re-tubing no matter what we do...but I might have an idea that will help keep from more soot to get baked on in there like that." Said Mark as he was looking at Johnson who was now climbing down from Chris's front after closing his smoke box door, " What did yeh have in mind there Mark?"

" First off is Case still live and kicking back there behind the shops?" Asked Mark, Johnson was a bit surprised from the question but nodded and said, "Yah he is, we haven't fired him up in a good year or so though, so he's gonna need a good cleanin' before yeh use him. Why do yeh ask Mark?" Mark then smiled, glad to hear Case was still back there sense the last time he saw him, " Well for starters the only thing I could come up with would be to steam clean Chris's tubes here, thats why I asked about Case. Johnson do you know if that old flat car is sitting at the mill still?"

Johnson nodded, " What would you need that old thing for?"

" That flat car is what I plan on mounting Case onto. Alright now yes steam cleanin' his tubes is pretty much the idea but this is how we'll do it, First were going to get Case cleaned up and working good like he used to and once thats done were gonna mount him onto that old flat car and make a mobile stationary boiler out of him, it should be plenty big enough to hold Case, a water tank, and a wood box."

Both Johnson and Jeremiah saw where this was going and smiled then they both said, " Go on then."

Mark nodded, " Second is that once Case is taken care of and mounted up, were then going to take one of the steam hoses we got layin' 'round here and hook up one end to one of the steam pipes that are here in the shop, and the other end to Chris's boiler. Using the steam from the shops boiler we'll pressurize Chris's boiler to 50psi or so. Just enough so that we can use his blower, we'll then fire up Case, who will have a steam hose hooked up to a regulator that will be attached to his steam dome. Once Case has steam up, Jeremiah will take the other end of the hose thats hooked up to Case and hold it inside Chris's firebox, aiming it at his tubes with his blower open full blow. Then I'll open the reg on Case, letting the steam go through the hose and get pulled through Chris's tubes by his blower. It should work rather well, and we would be doing this every Friday when were done workin' for the day. Although we'll be usin' Jack to pressurize Chris's boiler once were back on the branch workin'"

Jeremiah looked at Mark, " Sounds like a plan to me." Johnson agreed and went off to phone the manager about their plan

Chris had been listening to their plan and looked down at Mark, " Sounds like this here plan of yours should work out pretty darn good." Mark smiled, glad that Chris was alright with his plan, " Now, if any of you need me I'll be out back explaining this to Case." Jeremiah nodded and went to work firing up Chris so that they could move him to the four stall engine shed thats next to the shops.

Mark walked back behind the shops and smiled when he saw the old case traction engine boiler still sitting there on it's supports like he saw him last in 1920. Case was looking around at his surroundings until he heard that familiar voice," I'm glad to see your still live 'n kickin' back here Case." Mark was looking at the old boiler with a warm kind smile on his face.

Case smiled happily, " I could say the same for you youngin'." Said Case in his old voice.

Now Case is a 1905 20hp case traction engine that was bought second hand by the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company in 1912 from a local construction company who had no further need of him. He was used to help drag away unloaded logs to be stock piled for the camp one and two logging branches mill so that they can be cut into lumber at a later date. Case was also used to power a third saw mill that was located next to the second mill, which was used when the second mill was down for repairs or if the work load was to much for it to handle. He was made into a stationary boiler in 1918 when his cylinder cracked during the winter months while operating the smaller mill. He was having to work a lot harder then usual when powering the smaller third mill that day and the added stress and strain caused his cylinder to cracked from the cold temperatures and overbearing workload. After that they stripped the old worn out traction engine down as it was deemed to expensive to have another cylinder cast and used his parts as spares for their second case traction engine that was bought just after his accident. Surprisingly though the second case traction engine never needed the spare parts as workmen had learned from Case's accident and so the parts were put in storage so that if the money was raised they could reassemble Case and put him back to work.

When Case was working at the lumber yard at the second saw mill Mark was his firemen and operator, this is where Mark learned to fire locomotives as well as where he started off when he came to the railway in 1916 at the age of 18. After the accident Mark fired Case for two years as a stationary boiler until 1920 when he was assigned as a firemen to one of the locomotives.

Mark explained his plan to Case, who was happy he would be doing something other then rusting behind the shops. Soon Mark was holding a pencil and clip board and was writing down measurements as a workmen measured Case's length from his front to his back head, and then he had the workmen measure the length and width of his firebox, once done Mark walked back into the shop to see Chris was just starting to get a full head of steam up.  
" How's he doing Jeremiah?" Asked Mark

" Pretty good, he's getting steam up like Johnson said it usually takes him normally." Said Jeremiah as he was now shoveling in a little bit of good quality coal, " Good thing they got rid of that bad coal, and hows Case back there?"

" He's doing alright, a bit of work and he'll be steaming like before...now to hear about that old flatbed."

Jeremiah leaned out of Chris's right side cab window, " Oh yeah, Johnson said manager approves and that Smokey should be down here with it in an hour or so, you know how that old Baldwin is."

" Oh don't get me started." Chuckled Mark.

Just then Chris's safety valve lifted and filled the shop with steam causing a good couple of the workmen to scramble outside to get some fresh air. Chris chuckled as Jeremiah cracked open his throttle and rolled him out of the shops, he then opened his throttle a bit more just as Marked grabbed hold and climbed into the cab. They ran Chris through the shops yard and then backed him down into the empty four stall engine shed. Jeremiah closed his throttle and put the johnson bar in natural as he stood up and stretched, " Well its going on noon, I'm gonna head on into town to go get some lunch, want me to bring ya anything?" Mark nodded, " Yeah some coffee and two sandwiches."

The shops are located close to a small town, it's within walking distance so a lot of the men who work at the shop live in the town. Jeremiah then climbed down from the cab and walked down the dirt road and headed into town. About ten minutes later the sound a shrill single chime whistle filled the air, Mark climbed down from Chris's cab and walked out of the shed just in time to see a rather old, rusty, and worn out 2-4-0 roll into the shops yard pushing an old wood decked flatbed freight car. The old Baldwin rolled up and stopped in front of the shops with the flatbed and blew a long blast on his single chime whistle and looked around. It was Smokey, a 1880 2-4-0 Baldwin who had been on the railway since it opened back in 1900, and even then he was bought second hand, " Eh! Who 'ere needed this 'ere ol' flatbed?" Asked Smokey as his white beard, that came down to the deck of his pilot, was smoldering from hot ashes that came from his stack.

Mark quickly ran up with a bucket of water and poured it onto his beard, " That would be me Smokey, you can leave it here but don't head back to the mill, were gonna need yah later."

Smokey's beard was now smoking lightly, but the embers were put out, " 'lright Mark yeh youngin'." Smokey slowly pushed the flatcar into to shop then his driver and firemen parked him next to Chris in the shed. Twenty minutes later Jeremiah came back from town with two sandwiches and a cup of coffee for Mark, he went back to the shed and saw Smokey, " Hey Smokey, its been a while." Jeremiah climbed into Chris's cab and put Marks lunch on the fireman's seat, then he sat down in the drivers seat and dosed off for a nap.

Smokey looked at Chris, " So them tubes of yers finally gotcha didn' they?"

" Yeah they did Smokey..." Said Chris

_Northwest Railway Museum Snoqualmie, Washington – 2011_

Kate kept listening to Chris's story with great interest as she wrote in her notebook, after a minute or so she looked up at Chris, " How did Smokey get his name?" She asked.

Chris chuckled as he remembered, " When he first came to the line he was used to help finish the camp one branch, they say he'd work so hard that tons of black smoke would just pour out of his stack and so the name stuck. Back then they had 'em burnin' scrap wood from the main mill, where he was the yard engine, and 'cause of that sometimes ashes would shoot up from his stack and land in his beard causin' it to smolder."

Kate chuckled as well when she heard this this, " Please do continue." And so Chris did this gladly.

_Centralia, Washington – 1928_

Soon the sound of saws cutting away at the wood deck of the old flatbed could be heard from the shop as the rectangular hole, where Case's firebox will sit, started to take shape on one end of the flatcar. Not long after, two workmen went back behind the shed to fire up Brutus, a 1910 Bucyrus-Erie 25T railway steam crane. He was sitting on a siding that runs along the back of the shops, just to the right of where Case was sitting. It was used as a storage line for engines waiting to get into the shop but once the sheds for the shop were built it was quickly used to house MOW equipment, mainly Brutus.

Brutus and Case were good friends, the two first met the day Case was brought to the railway and was unloaded from a flatbed by Brutus. Once unloaded Case and Brutus started talking and the two hit it off and became great friends. As the workmen began to get a fire going in his boiler, Brutus was filled in on what was going on with Case and was glad to hear that his friend would be able to be useful again.

It wasn't long till Brutus had a full head of steam and Smokey was back behind the shop on the siding with the old flatbed. Mounted onto the flatbed were two thick wooden blocks that had curved cuts cut into them so that they would cradled Case and allowed for him to sit on the flatbed snuggly. Quickly some workmen began to disconnect the piping that was connected to Case, as well as get two large straps under him and attached them to Brutus's hook.

Case looked over at the crane, " Take it easy now Brutus."

Brutus smiled and then chuckled, " Sense when haven't I don't my job carefully and seriously?" Slowly and carefully Brutus lifted Case off his cement foundation and into the air. Tied to case were four ropes, which were used to help keep him from spinning while in the air as Brutus slowly turned to the left and began to lower him onto the the flatbed. Soon Case was sitting on the flatbed, his firebox sitting in the rectangular hole that was cut into the wood deck of the flatbed. Case was now nice and comfy on the flatbed as the workmen then began to get him secured down onto it, once done the workmen walked along side the flatbed as Smokey pulled Case out of the siding and into the shops yard.

Chris looked over at the yard from the sheds as he heard three blasts of Smokey's shrill single chime whistle, and saw him backing into the yard while pulling the flatbed with Case on it, " Is that what they plan on usin' for steam cleanin' my tubes?"

" Looks like it..." Said Jeremiah sleepily as he was just waking up from his nap.  
Pitch black smoke was just spewing from Smokey's stack as he backed into the yard. " Yer weight an' the stiff wheels of this 'ere flatbed are really makin' meh work!" said Smokey tiredly as he rolled to a slow stop and waited for the switch to the shop to be thrown.

" Sorry 'bout that." Case said as he looked down at Smokey.

" Ah don't go worryin' yerself 'bout lil ol' meh." Said Smokey as he slowly pushed Case forwards, with some wheel slip and heavy chuffing, into the shop's empty track. Once Case was in the shop Smokey was uncoupled from the flatbed and gave three blasts of his whistle as he backed out of the shop, through the yard, and made his way back to the main line. He then ran backwards all the way back to the camp three branch's mill.

Chris sat in the sheds and listened to the sounds of the shop with curiosity as the men of the shop worked all through the night on the boiler he saw on that old flatbed.

His curiosity got its answer four days later when Mark went and started building a fire in his firebox, " Come on now, time to wake up sleepin' beauty." said Mark as he lit Chris's fire.

Chris soon felt the warmth of his fire spread through his boiler and he yawned sleepily from being woken up from his afternoon nap. Once Chris had steam up Jeremiah cracked his throttle open and rolled Chris onto the turn table thats in front of the sheds, he was then turned around and backed into the yard. Chris looked around the yard, nothing seemed different from four days ago, _'Now, what is it that they're workin' on in there?' _Mark Was standing in front of the open door of the shops as Chris was rolled to a slow stop just in front of him.

" Chris, I'd like you to meet Case. He's going to be your mobile boiler for steam cleaning your tubes every Friday." Said Mark, who then walked into the shop and climbed onto the back of the flatbed.

Chris looked at what was in front of him and was quite surprised at what he saw. Sitting in front of him, mounted on the old flatbed that Smokey had brought, was a case traction engine boiler with a regulator and steam hose attached to its steam dome. The hose was at least 25ft long and was wrapped up on a piece of metal bar, like a garden hose, that was bolted down onto the the wood decking of the flatbed. Fitted snuggly under the wood decking, in between the metal frame rails of the flatbed, was a 150gal rectangle water tank. On the back of the flatbed on ether sided of the boilers back head were two oak bunkers, one for coal, and the other wood that's used to get the fire started. Then to top it off there was a canopy, like that of a Clishay locomotive, that went the length of the flatbed to help protect the boiler from the elements, and the top of the stack only just poked out from the roof of the canopy.

" Well, hello there its nice to meet yah." Said Case as he looked at Chris.

" Like wise." Smiled Chris.

It wasn't long till Mark started building a fire in Case's firebox and Jeremiah let Chris's fire go out, then he blew down his boiler releasing all the steam that was left in it. About 30 minutes later Chris watched as a few workmen hooked up a steam hose from a steam pipe in the shop to his boiler. They slowly opened the steam valve till his boiler was primed with 50psi, " Alright thats good." Said Jeremiah as the needle of the steam pressure gauge in Chris's cab reached 50psi.

Jeremiah then climbed down from Chris's cab and climbed onto Case's flatbed, takes the steam hose off of the hook and pulls the end of it up into Chris's cab and put it into his open firebox door, " All set on my end, how 'bout you Mark?" asked Jeremiah as he leaned out from Chris's cab, " Almost there, give me five minutes." Said mark as he put some wood onto Case's fire.

It wasn't long till Jeremiah opened Chris's blower fully and steam began to rise out of his stack, " Let 'er go Mark!" Said Jeremiah. Mark nodded and slowly opened Case's reg fully, fresh hot white steam shot out of the hose and was sucked through his tubes by the draft of his blower. Chris's eyes widened a little as he felt the warm sensation fill his tubes, then leave his stack.

After five minutes of this Mark closed Case's regulator and Jeremiah took the hose out of Chris's firebox door and wrapped it back up on the hook that was on Case. Mark looked at Chris, who looked like he just had a lot of stress relived, " How yah feelin' Chris?" Ask Mark.

Chris looked at him and laughed, " I haven't felt this good in years!" He exclaimed. Both Jeremiah and Mark laughed right along with him for a good few minutes.

Case smiled and chuckled a bit, " Glad to hear your feeling better Chris." Said Case as Mark put out his fire and climbed down from his flatbed. He then walked into the shop to talk with Johnson for a couple minutes then came back out and climbed into Chris's cab where Jeremiah was waiting, " Alright everythin' checks out, we can head back to the branch." said Mark as he put some coal onto Chris's fire to get it roaring.

" Good now I can go back to work instead of lettin' Jack deal with it all." Said Chris as he relaxed.

" I hear that." Said Jeremiah and after a little while he pulled the reverser back, cracked his throttle open and backed Chris down to the switch for the sheds. Once the switch was thrown Chris rolled onto the turntable, got turned around, and then slowly backed up and got coupled to Case. With two long blasts of his logging three chime whistle Chris smiled and said, " Now to head on home and get everythn' back in order." As Jeremiah opened his throttle and he chuffed out of the shop's yard and onto the main for the trip back to the camp three branch.

* * *

**Authors Note: Sorry that this took so darn long for me to post chapter three everyone. First I was sick and under the weather and then I was just up to my nose with school work! Hopefully chapter four won't take as long, but no promises. **


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